REPORT URGES QUICK ACTION ON TOLLWAY

An expressway connecting Wellington to West Palm Beach should be opened to traffic within five years and charge a toll of $1.50 each way to pay its $297 million price tag, a consultant will recommend to the Palm Beach County Expressway Authority today.

The report states that the process of buying land to build the 10-mile-long road should begin as soon as possible to avoid skyrocketing land prices.

Even if land purchases begin as soon as 1989, the cost of buying out some 250 homes, mostly in Westgate, and other properties along the proposed corridor is expected to reach $172.5 million -- more than half the project's total cost, the report from Kimley-Horn and Associates predicts.

And a flood of litigation over the condemnation of homes and businesses along the corridor that runs south of Okeechobee Boulevard could push the land- acquisition costs much higher, opponents of the project warned.

The recommendations in the report, which could become final in November after a public hearing, were denounced during a meeting Monday night of the advisory board set up to monitor the expressway plans. About 30 people attended the meeting.

Many on the board members oppose any type of east-west expressway into West Palm Beach because of the displacement of homes that will result.

The July 1, 1992, opening date recommended by the consultants came as a surprise to many on the advisory board who said they had been assured by expressway authority members that the highway would not be built for at least a decade, and probably later.

"There is something morally wrong in spending $510 million for this 10-mile stretch," said advisory member Sol Silverman.

He arrived at the $510 million figure by multiplying the $17 million annual debt service on bonds for the project by the 30-year life of the bond issue.

According to consultant Craig Miller, about $138 million of the project would have to be financed through bonds that would be repaid with toll revenues. Various federal and state grants could make up the difference, he added.

Unless additional grants could be obtained, the $1.50 toll for cars and $2.50 toll for large trucks would be required to meet the $17 million annual loan payback, Miller said.

He called it a "relatively high toll" but said enough vehicles would use the road to bring in $15.5 million in the first year and $25.5 million annually by the year 2012.

Many on the advisory board disagreed and predicted the tollway would not draw enough cars to pay for itself, forcing county taxpayers to bail it out.

To secure bonds to finance the expressway, the county would have to pledge about $7.2 million a year as backup funding in case tolls fell short, the report states. The most likely source for those funds would be the county gas tax.

But advisory members said they feared the east-west tollway could suffer the same fate as the Sawgrass Expressway in Broward County, which has drawn fewer cars than projected and is being subsidized by county road funds.